Showing 1 - 10 of 27
Where To Next?
Asia focus, Pattama Kuentak, Published on 10/01/2022
» The world has entered its third year of living with a global pandemic. We have witnessed almost 300 million Covid-19 cases with 5.47 million lives lost, yet the toll might have been much worse but for an almost superhuman global effort to develop effective vaccines in record time.
Year of Turbulence
Asia focus, Asia Focus Team, Published on 27/12/2021
» Pandemic drags on recovery: In the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, many Asian countries had enviable success, avoiding large-scale outbreaks and mass deaths. But the arrival of the more transmissible Delta variant this year and sluggish vaccine rollouts compounded by low availability sent cases surging. Combined with poor monitoring and easy movement among countries, often unofficially, Southeast Asia became a virus hotspot. The ballooning health crisis collided with churning political discontent in the case of Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. Economically, the new wave of infections, and attendant restrictions imposed to curb the spread, stalled recoveries. After nearly two years of strict border controls, many countries started to loosen up and live with Covid. But the rise of the Omicron variant now threatens to scuttle those tentative reopening plans and usher in a third year of economic anxiety.
On the right road
Asia focus, Nareerat Wiriyapong, Published on 13/12/2021
» Isao Sekiguchi loves travelling. Having been based in Thailand since April, the regional executive of Japan's Nissan Motor is now starting to explore the Land of Smiles during the high tourism season.
On the go again?
Asia focus, Pattama Kuentak, Published on 25/10/2021
» Winter is coming to the northern hemisphere, and people in North America and Europe normally flock to places that offer them a warm-weather break. It's the high season for tourism in many Asian countries, but one that will only happen in a world without Covid-19.
The Squid Game K-shock
Asia focus, Nareerat Wiriyapong, Published on 18/10/2021
» When I saw the K-pop sensations BTS taking centre stage at the United Nations headquarters in New York ahead of the General Assembly last month, I was surprised by the cheerful mood of the world-renowned boy band from Asia.
Women's work
Asia focus, Paritta Wangkiat, Published on 18/10/2021
» Amid wave after wave of Covid-19 in Japan, Mariko, a college lecturer and mother, has been working and raising her four-year-old daughter in an apartment shared by a family of four in Tokyo.
Extreme weather a wake-up call
Asia focus, Nareerat Wiriyapong, Published on 06/09/2021
» Waking up last Wednesday, I was surprised to see pictures of flooding on the Facebook page of my friend, whose house is not far from my place. I live on the eighth floor of a condo so I had no clue there was flooding in my neighbourhood, though it had been raining heavily when I went to bed.
Shall we spend?
Asia focus, Pattama Kuentak, Published on 24/05/2021
» Covid-19 has upended the life we know. The protracted global pandemic has stripped income and jobs from millions, forcing consumers to change their behaviours amid health concerns, and to reconsider how to spend their money amid an uncertain economic outlook.
Time to build back greener
Asia focus, Nareerat Wiriyapong, Published on 07/12/2020
» Watching the deluge in Nakhon Si Thammarat and other southern provinces of Thailand has been really distressing. Days of heavy rains have left roads inundated, hogs have been swept away on livestock farms and human casualties are rising after incessant rain triggered forest runoff from the Khao Luang mountain range, flowing into the Nakhon Si Thammarat municipal area for the first time in 30 years.
Shinzo Abe will be missed
Asia focus, Nareerat Wiriyapong, Published on 07/09/2020
» Last Wednesday, India banned 118 Chinese mobile applications from its huge domestic market, including the popular video game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which has over 50 million players in India. Others, including Baidu, Alipay and some versions of the messaging app WeChat, are operated by Chinese internet giants like Tencent and Ant Financial.